Wednesday News: Its all about the benjamins

Authors as Entrepreneurs: Bella Andre, Hugh Howey, Jasinda Wilder (Part 2) – If you like to think of writing as an art, don’t read this article because the authors in this piece are writing primarily for money. They study the market, produce high volumes of work in short periods of time (often as is the case with Howey and Wilder, their works of fiction are short ones that build on one another). They’ve all sold close to, or at least a million copies, and they’ve made several hundreds of thousands of dollars doing so.

For these authors, high volume and hard core marketing can result in a profitable career in writing. No one knows right now for how long, but the market is there for the author entrepreneur. Sramana Mitra

Andrew Wylie Interview: Literary Agent Makes Millions Off Highbrow – This interview with Andrew Wylie, a famous literary agent, is hilarious. He both hates his job and loves it. Same with Amazon. Truly, Andrew Wylie wants to make money and he believes that to do so is to represent a “preponderance of the best” writers to sell to a bunch of effete snobs who likely don’t even read. I think the disdain he has for Amazon has less to do with Amazon’s desire for dominance but the fact that they are doing it by traveling the low road. Entrepreneurship at its finest.New Republic

Book market gains new momentum – The international market for books is still feeling good about print. Except for the past two years, there has been growth in print sales. Let’s repeat that. Except for the last two years. But one thing that Andrew Wylie said in his interview was that the international appetite for books is still profitable. International countries also often have price protections for books which may help in bolstering declining demand (or may stem declining demand).

Traditional stationary book stores are facing major changes, and competition with online retailers is fierce. Those who survive will be determined by the added value a local bookseller can offer, said Skipis.Culture | DW.DE

American Library Association announce BFYA nominations – If you are a YA reader, you might be interested in the ALA’s Best YA book nominations. I don’t think I’ve read even one on that list. The influx of New Adult books has killed my desire to read YA almost entirely. YA Interrogbang

The Women Who Drove Ambulances on the Western Front – Evangeline Holland penned this lovely piece on women who drove ambulances on the western front. Women who drove in the early 1900s were wealthy and aristocratic, yet, obviously a little rebellious. Driving ambulances was no afternoon tea get together. One woman lost her leg and was awarded a high medal of bravery. And after the war, their contributions were often marginalized. We definitely could use more stories set in this time period.

Women war workers were all demobbed by the spring of 1919, and they undoubtedly found life had changed for themselves and for British society after four years of chaos, carnage, and courage. Though their contributions to the war were often marginalized in the interwar period, the inroads the ambulance drivers–and munitionettes, nurses, surgeons, farmers, WRNS, etc–made during WWI laid the foundation for an even greater contribution for women during WWII.Edwardian Promenade

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Jane Litte is the founder of Dear Author, a lawyer, and a lover of pencil skirts. She self publishes NA and contemporaries (and publishes with Berkley and Montlake) and spends her downtime reading romances and writing about them. Her TBR pile is much larger than the one shown in the picture and not as pretty.
You can reach Jane by email at jane @ dearauthor dot com

I envy authors who can write to a trend. Unfortunately, my muse simply doesn’t work that way. Sometimes that’s frustrating because I have a hard time “branding” myself as an author. I write all kinds of romance genres–contemporary, urban fantasy, historical–which I’m sure frustrates the heck out of my agents. ;)
I wish I had the ability to make my brain head a certain direction to write what’s popular. Alas, I can only write whatever story decides to pop up in my brain at any given time.

Trust me Sandy… WWI is definitely NOT writing to a trend :) I’ve been working on this idea for over a year – and my only hope is that possibly maybe given the small shift we’re seeing in historicals is that editors might be willing to now take a chance on this period where they haven’t been before.

Because you’re right. Sometimes the muse is just in control and you can’t do anything about her!

Sometimes the muse is just in control and you can’t do anything about her!

I reference the muse sometimes, though rarely. I call it “percolating.” It takes me years to write a book.

But I look at those authors who write like machine guns, and I know I could write like that too if I wanted to. The key is that I don’t want to.

I think most of us who can turn out a decent novel can actually do this. The “muse” is shorthand for saying, “But I don’t want to.” And so it’s a choice. It’s not better or worse; it’s differing goals.

@Stephanie Doyle: I wasn’t referring to you, Stephanie. I meant the authors mentioned in the post. I’m a history teacher, and I know how hard it is to research the WWI era. I’m looking forward to reading your book when you publish!! :D

I don’t know the other two, but at least I know now why I don’t like the work of Bella Andre of whom I have read two totally boring books. I am sure a lot of authors try to write to a trend and I enjoy my fair share of those titles, but I doubt I can grow a deep love for her, because the stories are simply too generic.

My desperate hope is that what I have a passion for writing becomes a trend, just through my (desperate) stick-to-it-iveness. Whenever I try to write to certain kinds of trends, the story veers off into something more to my liking. Call it the muse or call it don’t-wanna, but my brain doesn’t seem to be wired to go any other way.

I’m all for encouraging more WWI-era books–I’ve been trying to get others to write them for me to read for much of my life :) I was hoping that with Downton Abbey–and various centennials–this would become more of a trend, but it’s been slow to build. In trad pub there still seems to be a resistance to books set in the era. Don’t know why. I can speculate, but I’d only be guessing.

Of course you were! I’m an idiot. I don’t know why – but when I saw your comment I was thinking you were saying WW1 was the new trend… this might be in large part because I’m desperately hopeful it will be :)

I’m not commenting specifically on the books mentioned in the first article, but you *can* treat writing as both an art and a business. In the last two years, I’ve written books for educational publishers on how magnets work, the environmental movement, dyslexia, and Chaco Canyon – not topics I chose, but all fascinating and fun to write. I’m finishing an article for a high school chemistry magazine on how diamonds are made. It’s cooler than I ever imagined! Regardless of the topic, I look for ways to make the material compelling and interesting, and I always enjoy the process. But I wouldn’t do these projects if I weren’t getting paid.

Granted, my fiction is mainly romantic suspense (as Kris Bock) or historical fiction for middle grade kids (as Chris Eboch), and neither of those are hot trends. I wouldn’t want to devote the time it takes to write an entire novel for a genre I didn’t love. But I can certainly see how someone would like writing various genres and would choose the one that was most marketable, or might shift the balance in a story to include more romance or erotica so it would sell better. They could still love the writing and do their best.

As for speed, I’ve worked with hundreds of writers, and I haven’t seen any correlation between the time it takes to write a piece and the quality. Some people write fast and well. Some people write quickly and poorly. Some people take forever to produce brilliant work. Some people take forever and the work still isn’t any good. I could debate what all that means, but I’ll be quiet and go back to work now instead. ;-)

@Carolyne: “I’m all for encouraging more WWI-era books–I’ve been trying to get others to write them for me to read for much of my life :) I was hoping that with Downton Abbey–and various centennials–this would become more of a trend, but it’s been slow to build. In trad pub there still seems to be a resistance to books set in the era. Don’t know why. I can speculate, but I’d only be guessing.”

WWI is overshadowed by WWII in America, and it doesn’t elicit “warm fuzzies” for UK readers. Over the course of my research of WWI, there are also a lot of people who are absolutely resistant to WWI as a backdrop for historical fiction. They prefer to get their WWI fix from non-fiction and documentaries that won’t use artistic license and add frivolous things (like *ahem* romance, ewwww!). Regarding Downton Abbey-inspired fiction: the books are out there (and to be released), but not in huge numbers, most likely because the historical market is currently soft.

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